Remarks by the President of the Republic about the negotiations in Mont Pelerin

The President of the Republic, Mr Nicos Anastasiades and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Mustafa Akinci, who are in Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, for negotiations on the issue of Territory, had dinner yesterday evening, accompanied by the members of their negotiating teams, at a restaurant in the area of Montreux near Mont Pelerin.

The President of the Republic, in his remarks to reporters, on the sidelines of the dinner, said that “tomorrow (11 November) is considered one of the most critical meetings given everything that has taken place before.

I must say that during the first and a half days discussions covered, as you well know, issues that concern the four chapters, and I must confess that there was further progress on pending issues.

The most important was the discussion of the Property issue, where some progress was noted, further progress. However, it was completely linked, as we had said repeatedly, with the issue of Territory.

We started today on the issue of Territory, there is a creative effort by both sides, there is a good climate, but these alone are not enough to provide the outcome. Everything will depend on the dialogue that will follow tomorrow.”

Asked what he means by “everything”, the President said “by everything I mean as far as the conclusion here is concerned, with regard to the issue of Territory, in the sense, that is to say, of the agreement on the criteria or not.”

He added that “of course it is not the final meeting. For some 42 years we have been negotiating on the Cyprus problem. The effort now is to create those indispensable conditions that will allow us to proceed to the next step.”

Asked whether it was possible to see a map on the table during today’s meeting, the President said that “the first prerequisite is the agreement on the criteria; the second is, on the basis of the criteria, to have maps submitted, which will reflect the agreement on the criteria. In this sense, it is considered that there is progress and consequently we can proceed further. If it will not be possible to conclude what we seek, it will not be the end of the process; we will continue the dialogue in our homeland.”

Later on, in his remarks to Turkish Cypriot reporters, the President said that “we are negotiating in a very good climate with a commitment to meet each other’s concerns, but this is not enough. It depends on what we will see tomorrow, which is the most critical day; to see if we are within reach in order to finalize or to continue our deliberations furthermore in Cyprus”.